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Mike and I spent the weekend at the family ‘cabin’ with his parents, bother and his daughter, grandfather and several aunts and uncles. The ‘cabin’ is 3 trailer homes on 80 acres of mostly forested land in east-central MN. The whole weekend was wonderful with many doses of happiness throughout! To name a few:

- lots and lots of thunderstorms Saturday night/Sunday morning

- Sunshine on Sunday

- Slacklining

- Helping my 3 year old niece ‘slackline’

- Painting my niece’s nails.

- No access to phone or internet

- Doing whatever the heck I wanted, when I wanted.

But the winner for Daily Dose of Happiness on Sunday was later in the evening when my brother-in-law Spencer and his 3 year old daughter, Libby, and I were running around the yard, taking turns chasing each other. There aren’t many things happier than a cute as heck giggly 3 year old girl, but this moment was actually about Spence. I always considered Spencer my brother, and never really felt the need to qualify the relationship with ‘in-law’, but something about that moment really drove home the fact that Spencer really is my brother, not ‘in-law’, just my brother. It’s not because I’m married to Mike and I ‘have to’ like him, but because I truly love Spencer as my brother. I am an only child, so I never knew a sibling bond, first hand, until now.

Monday’s had 2 DDofH moments. The first runner up is brought to us by The Beatles – Happiness is a Warm Gun. Mike and Spencer and I started the morning with a little target shooting. I was terrible, but apparently that’s because the gun just didn’t fit my hand right. I’ll have to try out a few different styles and find the right one for me, someday. The winner for the day was the drive home. I spent the first hour staring at the forests as we drove by. The sky was blue with big puffs of clouds, birds were leisurely soaring, the trees were tall, the forests full and regal, the clearings peaceful and green. The ditches were full of water and the streams over flowing, but it was all an amazing show of nature. I was actually a little saddened as we approached the city and the forests of trees turned into forests of buildings, the clearings turned from lush and green to hard and black pavements…